I’VE BEEN TAKING IT SLOW with WoW: Mists of Pandaria, so I’ve only now finished the second high-level zone, Valley of the Four Winds. There’s an extremely familiar feel to it, evoking memories of previous zones like Westfall and Nagrand, but I have a strong suspicion it might end up as my favorite zone of the expansion.

Where The Wind Blows

As soon as you land in the Valley (assuming you took the breadcrumb flight following the Serpent’s Heart hub in Jade Forest), you’re introduced to two panda NPCs who accompany you through a fair amount of the zone: Chen Stormstout and his niece, Li-Li.  Most of the initial quests are spread out across a series of farms owned by the Thunderfoot clan, which will take on increased importance as the zone progresses.

The best thing about the first half of the zone is that you’re immediately given several options in terms of where to go. Rather than a linear progression through the storyline, you’re given a number of quests to visit NPCs scattered throughout the zone, and even a few to start the zone to the south, Krasarang Wilds (more on that shortly). It’s a vast improvement over many of the Catalcysm zones, which offered little freedom within their questing paths.

Now We’re Cooking

At the center of the valley is Halfhill Market, which acts as the nexus to the overhauled cooking profession. Run by the Ironpaw family, cooking has been split into six “Ways,” each focusing on a different stat like strength, agility or intellect. (Technically, the sixth way is just alcohol. Hic!) You can level to 600 in any of these Ways, and there’s even an NPC who sells recipes and goods to help you speed-level cooking if you’ve ignored it to this point, which is cool.

But the biggest novelty is the addition of an actual “farming” mechanic, where you can plant seeds that grow into goods for use in cooking recipes.  You start off with your own plot of land where you can plant four crops, which expands into a much more elaborate system where you’ll literally be “farming” reputation with the faction (which has kind of an ironic ring to it).

Into the Wilds

Towards the end of the zone, there’s a quest hub to the southwest where hunter extraordinaire Hemet Nesingwary makes an obligatory appearance. It’s nowhere near as lengthy as the old Stranglethorn Vale or Nagrand chains, which I have mixed feelings about. The extended length of the classic chains gave them an epic feel by the end that’s missing here, but to be honest, I was happy to not spend forever killing a thousand different beasts and instead just move on after a dozen quick quests or so.

After completing Valley of the Four Winds, I moved south to Krasarang Wilds, a coastal forest zone that almost feels like a jungle extension to the valley (it wouldn’t shock me to find out the two zones started out as one). I didn’t find most of the hubs that memorable, except for the one furthest south, Nayeli Lagoon: rather than force you do a bunch of swimming to get around, you’re given a raft which you can “paddle” faster by jumping up and down. If nothing else, it’s a nice change of pace from most of the questing leading up to it.

As I prepare to shift north to Kun-Lai Summit, I still find myself oddly in no hurry to tour the new zones or get my characters to 90. With past expansions, I’d be chewing through the new content as fast as possible, but this time I’ve only been dipping in and out, although I’m not sure that’s an indictment of the expansion. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played so far, probably more so than Cataclysm, but after 8 years, I think it’s just hard to get as excited as the world once did every time a WoW expansion dropped.

AFTER SUCCESSFULLY getting the realm first for fishing when Mists of Pandaria opened this week, I hit the new continent of Pandaria to start my journey from level 85 to 90. As with Cataclysm, I wanted to jot down some thoughts on each zone as I leveled, and the first stop, Jade Forest, took some warming up to.

Geronimo!

For Alliance, the road to Pandaria starts in Stormwind Keep, which triggers a cutscene explaining how a new continent has been discovered “wandering” through the southern oceans of Azeroth. (Funny how these WoW characters keep uncovering new parts of the world every few years. Whoa, where did that continent come from!) After hitching a ride on the Skyfire gunship, you arrive in Pandaria to a full-fledged battle raging on the continent below.

Your first mission is a simple gyrocopter flight: it’s an on-rails mission where you’re firing missiles at hordes of enemies below. It’s basically a cinematic introduction that gives you a few minutes to view the new zone from above before you parachute down into the chaos.

Once on the ground, the opening quests (the Alliance starts on the south coast, the Horde the north) are simple enough: kill some enemies, blow up some tanks, etc. As you’d expect, the starting areas are overcrowded right now, but Blizzard has gotten better over the years at building quests to accommodate the rush. After a few more quests and scripted events, it was off to my first quest hub: Paw’Don Village.

Hubba Hubba

I’m not sure how I feel about the new Pandaren village layouts. So far, they feel a little too spread out, with NPCs scattered all over the place. You can’t fly in Pandaria (why do I keep wanting to call it Pandora?) until level 90, so it can be a little confusing finding that mailbox with areas overlapping each other and roads winding around mountainsides.

One questing tweak: achievements for completing zones are now based on completing hubs (instead of how many quests you complete). Every time you finish a hub, a mini-alert pops up; this gives questing a more story-like feel, where each hub represents a chapter of a larger tale. 

Most of the Jade Forest story centers on the arrival of outsiders (that’s you) and initial efforts to coexist with the Pandaren. Unfortunately, the focus on the story causes things to drag out a bit, with a lot of gimmicky quests and mini–games that bring the action to a halt. Unless you’re really into the whole zen-and-harmony theme, you’ll probably have lost patience by the time you’re doing Pandaren household chores. I killed Arthas and Deathwing, dammit! Why am I trimming this tree?

The Epic Finish

Things pick up greatly in the second half of the zone, with more traditional questing and far more interesting events. The Tian Monastery was the first place the Pandaren stuff clicked for me, and the Serpent’s Overlook event closes things out with an epic cutscene and transition to the next zone. You also get an up-close introduction to the Temple of the Jade Serpent, one of the first new dungeons available to players as they head towards 90. 

If nothing else, Jade Forest is unquestionably pretty. It’s mostly forest, but the addition of cherry blossom trees and Pandaren architecture makes it superior to previous jungle zones like Stranglethorn Vale or Sholazar Basin, so in that regard it’s a great way to introduce players to Pandaria.

Next up is the Valley of the Four Winds, although I can’t say I’m in a giant hurry to churn through it. I’ve cleared Jade Forest on two characters, and (oddly) find myself in no rush to get to 90. Instead, I’ve been dabbling with my professions and the new pet battle system (PokeWoW!), so for now, the dungeon grind can wait.

]]> http://www.bytica.com/?feed=rss2&p=2021 0 http://www.bytica.com/?p=1951 http://www.bytica.com/?p=1951#comments Wed, 26 Sep 2012 03:20:51 +0000 Sluggo http://www.bytica.com/?p=1951

WHEN CATACLYSM LAUNCHED two years ago, I made a completely unplanned and half-assed attempt to get the achievement for being the first person on the server to max out their fishing skill. It was so spur-of-the-moment that it was a half hour before I actually started fishing, which was about the same amount of time I lost by.

Since then, I’ve acquired the <Salty> title on two characters and won the various fishing derbies six or seven times, so with the launch of Mists of Pandaria last night, I felt obligated to make a proper attempt at the [Realm First: Zen Master Angler] fishing achievement. Interestingly, you could argue it was more about the planning than the fishing.

As Fast As You Can

There are a number of “Realm First” achievements that come along with each WoW expansion. There’s one for being the first person on the server to reach the new level cap, as well as one for each individual class. It’s never appealed to me, the gaming equivalent of choking down a five-course meal in 60 seconds. Except here, you’re talking about being glued to your computer for 15-30 hours straight. Not for me. There are also firsts for various boss kills, but those won’t happen for weeks.

Then there are realm firsts for each profession. Skills like tailoring and blacksmithing generally take some planning, and firsts generally go to people who’ve seen the content in beta and worked out a solid strategy for acquiring all the necessary materials. Gathering professions, on the other hand, are just a straight-up race, where firsts for max mining and herbalism rarely last an hour.

And there’s fishing, arguably the purest race of the bunch. There’s no real advantage to having played in the beta, and as far as I know, you don’t get extra skillups from being in a level 25 guild. It’s just a question of picking a good spot, fishing as fast as you can for two hours and hoping you have decent luck with skillups. So for me, the question was: what can I do to give myself the best chance of hitting 600 first?

AS I OFTEN DO, I took a summer break from WoW, because I live in southern California and I’m a weird brand of geek who enjoys things like sunlight and beaches. But with last week’s release of the world-changing v5.0.4 patch in advance of Mists Of Pandaria, I spent some time getting reacquainted so I wouldn’t be totally lost when the expansion hits.

Naturally, the biggest changes won’t arrive until the expansion officially releases on September 25. That said, a lot of pretty big stuff has already gone live, so here are some thoughts on ten major changes that have already hit the game.

1) New Skill Trees

One of the biggest changes is the complete overhaul of the skill tree system. Gone are the old trees where you’d assign points every level or two, and – as Blizzard’s designers have lamented – everyone ended up with one of a few cookie-cutter specs. So in an effort to provide more meaningful choices, this is what the new system looks like:

In short, specs are more preset now. You automatically learn new abilities as you level, and the skill trees are more about secondary options to customize your playstyle or things you might want to swap on a situational basis. (In this warrior tree, for example, level 15 offers three options on how Charge works.) You might want one abilty for soloing and questing, but another for raiding, and this new system lets you make those changes without much fuss.

So far, the system feels a little underwhelming to me. You only get one option every 15 levels — 6 points total — so if you’ve been away and forget to re-assign your skill points, it might be a while before you even notice it. Hopefully the utility of the system will become more obvious as players level to 90 and get into raids and scenarios.

2) Glyph System Overhaul

In a similar vein, the glyph system has also gotten a facelift. Prime glyphs have been removed (leaving players with three major and three minor), and a ton of new glyphs have been added, which scribes can learn from their trainers and start cranking out right now.

The thing that immediately jumps out is how most of the new minor glyphs are about “fun” customization stuff: Pickpocketing changes a rogue’s appearance; fireworks shoot from a hunter’s gun; a warrior shout frightens small animals (seriously). Which is fine, as some of the new minor glyphs are pretty cute, but leaves just the three major glyphs to offer some secondary utility. (I’ve edited a few tooltips into this shot for a few glyphs as an example.)

3) LFR Loot Changes

I have mixed feelings on this one. Instead of rolling against other players in LFR for loot, one of two things happen after a boss kill: you “win” (rarely) and receive a piece of loot appropriate for your character, or (usually) you get a bag of gold.

On the plus side, this streamlines the system, so you don’t have to wait forever for other people to roll (which I could never figure out – where do people run off to after a boss kill?) It’s especially noticeable on the last boss of a raid, where LFR groups don’t mill about for five minutes any more waiting for some dope to hit the roll button. The instant resolution is definitely an improvement.

This also eliminates LFR loot whoring, or people rolling on inappropriate gear, or that depressing feeling you get when, for the fourth week in a row, you lose that epic bow off Deathwing to a hunter who’s somehow 26th in DPS in a 25-person raid. There’s something about not rolling against other players for loot that’s somehow less stress-inducing.

But for some reason, I worry the math on this will end up working against the players. At least I got to pick what I was rolling on before. Does this new system know what I own or am I going to end up with six pairs of the same bracers? Ultimately, I’ll need to see the system in action in the new Pandaria raids before we know one way or the other.

4) AoE Looting!

Maybe my favorite change in 5.0.4 – how didn’t this happen sooner? Kill 15 mobs, click one, get all their loot at once. I’ve already experienced this awesomeness firsthand while farming BC dungeons for xmog gear, as it makes looting way, way, easier. Huzzah!

5) Ranged Slot Removal

I’d totally forgotten this was coming: the ranged slot has been removed from the game, leaving just the main hand and offhand slot. No more guns for warriors or rogues, no more relics for pallies or DKs, and wands are now the equivalent of spell daggers for mages and priests.

Although I feel a pang of nostalgia for the way I used to range-pull Stratholme on my warrior in vanilla WoW, the loss of stat sticks isn’t a big deal. With one exception: my hunter can no longer carry Kiril, Fury of Beasts. Because watching my worgen hunter grow to OMG GIANT SIZE every time that polearm would proc never got old.

6) So Many Class Tweaks

Every WoW expansion brings a slew of class changes, but rather than list them all, I’ll just talk about a few from the classes I play the most:

Warrior. A lot of stance-related stuff has changed. All abilities work in all stances, which makes stance-dancing a thing of the past. While Defensive still cuts damage and generates threat, the main difference between Battle and Berserker is how they generate rage, as Berserker no longer gives its traditional 10% damage boost.

One thing I like: with the skill tree changes, swapping between Single Minded Fury (two 1-handers) and Titan’s Grip (two 2-handers) no longer requires respeccing, which will be awesome once Pandaria hits and players are continually upgrading weapons via questing and dungeons.

Hunter. Obviously, the ranged slot is gone, so your bow or gun simply goes in your main slot. My favorite change: no more minimum range! It’s funny, I used to laugh at hunters who wouldn’t shut up about it, but I’ve really enjoyed this so far, especially while soloing older content.

Rogue. Poisons no longer need to be purchased; you have a bag with an endless supply in your spellbook, and you can have one damage-dealing poison and one “utility” poison active at any time. Also, the need for a fast dagger for your offhand has been removed (although I have to admit, I’m still not entirely sure what this means for rogue weapons overall).

Mage. Even though Fire was the (ahem) hotness throughout Cataclysm, I’ve stuck with Arcane, as I’ve found it a nice “comfort” spec. The Arcane rotation has been tweaked slightly for Pandaria, requiring a little more balance between Arcane Blast/Missiles/Barrage, but I really like it so far. I’ve run LFR a few times just to get a feel for it, and it might be my favorite Pandaria spec so far. Also, you don’t need help summoning a refreshment table any more. Yay!

Paladins. I’ve always been a terrible ret paladin. Seriously. I leveled mine to 85 at the start of Cata so I could get his professions up, and never got comfy with the DPS rotation. So when I logged in this week and saw that auras had been removed, replaced with seals, I somehow turned into an even bigger doof, staring at my hotbar wondering, “wait, so what do I do now?” Answer: Roll a monk.

7) The New Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery

Just as Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep were overhauled with level 85 heroic versions for Cataclysm, two more classic dungeons – Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery – have gotten the same treatment for Pandaria. The level 90 versions can’t be played yet, but the lowbie versions are live, and it feels a little weird wandering through the remixed versions.

Scholomance, which used to be a sprawling dungeon with all sorts of side bosses, has been tweaked into a more linear affair. Jandice Barov and Rattlegore are back in new areas, along with a few new bosses. Of course, Darkmaster Gandling is still the finale, but at least in the lowbie version, you don’t have to clear any of the side rooms. So are Kirtonos the Herald, The Butcher and Ras Frostwhisper gone forever? I’m hoping they’ll make their return at some point.

Scarlet Monastery has been overhauled even further. The four wings have been condensed into two, with the Library and Armory in one wing (“Scarlet Halls”) and the Graveyard and Cathedral in the other (“Scarlet Monastery”). A lot of the old bosses return but in new encounters, including some new mechanics that I wouldn’t be surprised to see turn up in raids down the road.

8) Updated Dungeon Journal

A lot of people tend to forget this feature exists, but Shift-J will bring up your Dungeon Journal, which includes detailed info on new Pandaria dungeons and raids. In addition to the new Scarlet Monastary and Scholomance, you’ll find detailed info on six new Pandaria dungeons, including maps, boss abilities and loot drops.

Of more interest to me, however, is the raid section. You’ll find three traditional raids listed with six bosses each (Heart of Fear, Mogu’shan Vaults and Terrace of Endless Spring), all with LFR options, and a fourth “Pandaria” section covering the two new roaming world bosses (Sha of Anger and Salyis’s Warband). Blizzard has already announced that there will be staggered releases for the raid content, starting with Mogu’shan Vaults, but if you want to get a sneak peek at the raid content, this is a great place to start.

9) Cross-Server Zones

If you’re wondering, “cross what?,” don’t feel bad. As a way of making older zones feel busier, Blizzard rolled out new tech in 5.0.4 where people from different servers can find themselves sharing the same zone. So if only three people on your server are in Zangarmarsh, you might start seeing other people from other servers popping up. In theory, it’s a way of making older, underpopulated areas feel more alive.

But I’m not convinced this won’t do more harm than good. People are already complaining about competing with players on other servers for mining and herbing nodes in older zones at 1AM, which is beyond ridiculous. Will people from different servers be competing for pools during fishing contests? Will lowbies suddenly be fighting for quest mobs with people from other realms? Obviously, it’s too early to say anything for sure, but hopefully this is just a first step towards Blizzard implementing some cooler features.

10) Account-Wide Pets, Mounts and Achievements

Over the last year, I’ve found WoW players fall into one of two categories. The first will have varying levels of interest in the first nine items I’ve listed in this post. The second, larger than I’d care to admit, couldn’t care less about any of this stuff; the only aspect of v5.0.4 that matters is that pets, mounts and achievements are now shared account-wide. So that rare pet that dropped in Magister’s Terrace or that mount you won in a Sarth 3D run can now be used by all your characters and adds to your overall achievement total.

Don’t get me wrong: this is an awesome thing. Before the patch, I had a DK with 8k achievement points and a warrior with 11k, with a fair amount of achieves that didn’t overlap. So now I’m up to 13k and all my characters have access to all my pets and mounts, so that’s pretty cool, especially as Blizzard prepares to roll out the pet battle system.

Still, it’s been fascinating to be to watch the emergence of this pet-obsessed subculture within WoW, players who are “casual” in almost every sense of the word but begin drooling at the mere mention of a new mount or pet. It’s hard not to see Pandaria‘s family-friendly Kung Fu Panda vibe and Pokemon-esque pet battling system as a bit of a nod to that populace, and it’ll be interesting to see if the battling system takes off and where the game goes next.

YOU MAY NOT HAVE REALIZED it was coming, but Harmonix released a new Rock Band game last week. Called Blitz, it’s an arcade game that ditches the plastic guitars and drums in favor of a standard controller and (hooray!) works with your existing DLC library. The gameplay isn’t revolutionary by any stretch, but as a $15 XBLA/PSN downloadable title that includes 25 new songs (“Jessie’s Girl”!), it’s a pretty sweet deal.

The gameplay mostly resembles Rock Band Unplugged for the PSP: there are four tracks representing drums, bass, guitar and vocals (a fifth for keyboards in some cases), each with only two lanes of notes, left and right. You can slide to any instrument whenever you want, but that’s where the strategy begins: more notes = more points, but maintaining a balance across all instruments builds a bonus multiplier you can cash in on later on, so each song becomes a mini-puzzle where you try to figure out an optimal scoring path.

Adding to the strategy, you get three powerups at the start of each song which rack up even up more points. Some are straightforward, like double points for drums or guitar, while others let you trade energy for various bonuses. Some are just wacky, like a giant pinball that crushes notes as long as you can keep it in play. Again, different songs lend themselves to different powerups, so you could spend hours mastering any one song, let alone the hundreds people have stockpiled in their libraries over the years.

These powerups are purchased with “coins” – an in-game currency you acquire simply by playing songs (not via spacebucks…yet). To me, it’s a terrible mechanic: restarting a song forfeits any coins you’ve spent, and having to ration coins makes me less inclined to play a song 20 times in search of a high score. Then again, maybe that’s the idea: you get bonus coins for playing new songs, so hey, why don’t you buy some new DLC? (as the game continually suggests).

You also get bonus coins via “Rock Band World,” a Facebook app where you can connect with friends for special challenges and OH GOD MAKE IT STOP. I’ve been ignoring the Facebook aspect, so it’s not intruding on my game, but this is not a trend I want to see continue. Will the next Half-Life make me friend the Black Mesa facility to unlock a mission? Will I get a special gun in Halo 4 if I friend Master Chief? Just stop.

That aside, the basic gameplay in Blitz is fun enough. It’s a simple way to get new life out of your existing Rock Band library, and the 25 songs included with Blitz (it’s an OK-but-not-awesome soundtrack) also work with Rock Band 3. You can challenge friends to duels, replay your favorite songs over and over in pursuit of high scores, and I have to admit, as someone whose friends list is dotted with many of the world’s best Guitar Hero / Rock Band players, seeing many of them pop online again has offered some nice pangs of nostalgia. Thumbs up.

 Sluggo’s Score: B. 

I WAS ORGINALLY going to write something about the recent slap fight between the ex-Blizzard North folks and the current Diablo III team (and I still might), but for now, I’m simply enjoying the victory of reaching level 60 with my Hardcore character. Meet Chereyna, my unstoppable barbarella, who successfully navigated 60 levels of Diablo III without a single death.

I realize this is hardly news in a week that’s seen the release of Guild Wars II and WoW‘s big Pandaria patch (which I’ll get to in another post). But after putting Diablo III aside in June and again this month, last week’s big v1.0.4 patch spurred me to finally push my normal Barbarian to 60 and repeat that with my Hardcore character, and it feels like I’ve completed unfinished business. Playing a Hardcore character was a unique gaming experience, one I’d highly recommend if you haven’t already.

Reaction to the patch itself has been fairly positive. There was a lot of unrest from players stuck on various bosses in Inferno, and the patch brought a variety of tweaks and buffs to all five classes. Personally, I like the graphical additions that show where elites are casting special attacks, and the extra functionality that’s been added to the Auction House. If nothing else, the patch has gotten a number of people excited about Diablo III again, and it’ll be interesting to see how Blizzard continues to patch the game down the line. (PvP, anyone?)

On the other hand, this just about closes the book on Diablo III for me. My plan is to complete Hell with this Hardcore character, and that should do it. I might dabble with Inferno at some point, but having gone through the four acts so many times already, I have no interest in leveling any more classes to 60. I’ve gotten more than my money’s worth out of the game, so as I gear up for this holiday’s release crush, a thumbs up to the Diablo III team, who — no matter what some ex-devs might say — clearly understand how to make an enjoyable action-RPG.

(The moment, captured for posterity)

]]> http://www.bytica.com/?feed=rss2&p=1824 0 http://www.bytica.com/?p=1815 http://www.bytica.com/?p=1815#comments Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:10:16 +0000 Sluggo http://www.bytica.com/?p=1815

A FEW DAYS AGO, Valve released a free “Mann vs. Machine” update for Team Fortress 2, offering a new riff on the co-op/survival gametype. In MVM, a team of up to 6 players defends against progressively tougher waves of robots, who are trying to carry a bomb to the map’s endpoint. Done in TF2‘s whimsical style, it’s a fun distraction, and allows Valve to experiment with new ways to separate gamers from their money. As we approach TF2‘s fifth anniversary, however, it’s not quite the upgrade the game sorely needs.  

The update includes three new maps created for MVM: “Coaltown,” “Mannworks” and “Decoy.” All are done in the traditional TF2 style, maybe with a little extra Old West flavor. All three are set outdoors, but aren’t that big, nor do they need to be: the bots cluster up and run along clearly outlined paths, so your team usually converges on the bomb and tries to keep the bots from moving it along. 

The bots themselves are modeled after the TF2 classes. There are demomen,  soldiers, scouts, heavies and pyros, even the occasional sniper and spy. There are also special bots, like ginormous demomen and soldiers who dish out extra damage, or armored tanks, which require the focused fire of an entire team to destroy before it reaches the endpoint.  One of the more amusing waves features a swarm of melee-only giant heavies, who exist as a distraction for a lone Scout to swoop in and sprint to the finish with the bomb.

The bots get tougher as you clear waves, so it becomes important to buy upgrades for your character between rounds (using cash dropped by defeated robots). As an example, I’ve been playing a lot of Heavy, and I tend to lean towards increased max ammo, increased rate of fire, and a few personal five-second ubers. The upgrades only last for the duration of the map, which opens the door for lots of experimentation.

Of course, like any new release, there are a few bumps in the road. The biggest headache is finding servers: the game steers you towards the in-game matchmaking system, but that just dumps you in a queue that never seems to work. And when you’re on a server and your team is short a person or two, you’ll go 10-15 minutes without it filling up. So the best option is just to search the browser for servers with “mvm” and less than 6 players and hope it works out.

You could also try playing on Valve’s official “Mann Co” servers, which try to lure you in with the promise of special loot, but with a catch: you’ll need to buy a ticket (currently $1) to play on those servers. When you complete a “tour,” you get a piece of unique loot and the ticket is consumed, so if you’ve just got to have more virtual hats, here’s a new way to get them.

The main problem with MVM is the same thing that’s plagued TF2 forever: it only takes one or two chumps to throw the whole thing off. When you’ve got one guy who won’t leave the upgrade station or just runs around the map aimlessly when he should be killing bots, things eventually go south. What TF2 has needed forever are player ratings and ranked servers, similar to what Blizzard has done with Starcraft. I recently uninstalled TF2 and only reinstalled it to check out this update, and without better matchmaking, MVM won’t be enough to keep me around.  

THE ESA ANNOUNCED TODAY that they’d signed an agreement to keep E3 in Los Angeles for the next three years, running through 2015. The news was met with the predictable variety of reactions, usually boiling down to whether that reporter or commenter happened to be a fan of L.A. or not.

The most interesting part of that news, however, is that the L.A. Convention Center is about to undergo a major overhaul to make way for the proposed Farmers Field football stadium, which includes the removal of the West Hall that traditionally houses a large part of E3. Which led to the following quote in today’s ESA statement: 

E3 2013 would take place June 11-13, 2013, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, L.A. LIVE and a plethora of venues throughout downtown Los Angeles and the City. 

For many writers and industry folk, this quote will produce some level of unease, wondering what exactly “plethora of venues” might mean.

You might remember the ESA experimented with a different approach to E3 back in 2007, trying to establish a “more personal” affair. Moving the show from May to July, a much smaller exhibitor area was located in a Santa Monica hangar, with most of the large publishers setting up shop and taking appointments at a variety of fancy hotels near the Santa Monica pier. It was enough of a pain in the ass that it lasted exactly one year, with E3 returning to the LACC a year later. 

And make no mistake, covering that E3 was awful. If you drove, parking at the hotels was a disaster. If you didn’t, getting back and forth between the hotels and the Santa Monica hangar was a pain in the ass. We didn’t have a traditional war room at the LACC, so it was hard to get any writing done during the day unless you just took up residence in a hotel lobby between appointments. The ritzy hotels were a nice change of scenery, especially those right on the beach, but there was nothing “more personal” about that show, which is why it didn’t make an encore performance.

Ultimately, it seems unlikely that the ESA would go back to the Santa Monica approach, but would instead leverage the many hotels near the LACC that publishers already use to take appointments. Still, if construction gets going – there’s supposed to be news on that this week – and the West hall space is lost, where do those exhibits go? Does the ESA just cut everyone’s space in half, or is there a second large exhibitor location nearby, or do they repeat the mistake of having a decentralized E3, with stuff scattered all over the place?

I’ll admit, I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that the city is planning to build a football stadium on that site. I remember that space before the LA Live area was built, attending several Grammys at the Staples Center and afterparties held in the West hall, and the idea of it vanishing and a football stadium going up just kind of boggles my mind. But it should make for some even more entertaining E3s down the road … assuming they don’t just move to Vegas.

From the Well, Duh Department: Blizzard announced today that World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria will be released exactly two months from today, on September 25. And this post isn’t meant so much as a news alert, but to ask a question: was this a surprise to anyone? 

Between Diablo III releasing in May, the timing of the MoP beta, and Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm looming on the horizon, it was a no-brainer that Blizzard would target a Q3 release for Pandaria, with mid-to-late September being the most likely window. Of course that was the target, leaving the option to get Heart of the Swarm out in Q4 and make their Activision overlords ridiculously happy with mega-releases in three straight quarters. Which, it seems, is exactly what we’re headed towards. 

(Although, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 coming in November, you could actually concieve Activision preferring to push the next Starcraft to early 2013 to keep the gravy train rolling, so who knows?) 

The real question now is: when will the v5.0 patch arrive, and what will it contain? Every WoW expansion has been preceded by a major patch overhauling the game with a host of new free features, and if history is any indication, that should happen extremely soon. Cataclysm launched on December 7, 2010, but the v4.0 patch that introduced all the talent changes dropped almost two months earlier on October 12; the “Shattering” event that reformed Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor arrived on November 23. So it’s not crazy to think that we could see a pre-expansion patch as soon as a few weeks from now.

As for few features, the area of Pandaria or the new monk class obviously won’t be available until the expansion releases, nor will the level cap get raised to 90 until Sept 25. On the other hand, the talent system, which is getting a total overhaul, is a safe bet to go live immediately, as well as some system tweaks like the removal of the ranged slot from the game and the addition of account-wide pets, mounts and achievements, which a lot of people are excited about.

Maybe the biggest question is when we’ll see the debut of the pet battling system, which I suspect is going to be huge in MoP. I’ve made fun of it in the past, referring to it as PokeWoW, but then again, I’m a longtime fan of the Pokemon games and am looking forward to playing around with the pet battles myself. So with any luck, the panda-loving fun will get started fairly soon.

TWO WEEKS after Diablo III was released, I’d completed the game on Nightmare and was midway through Act III on Hardcore when my gaming PC suffered a catastrophic meltdown. I was forced to shelve the game for a month, but after returning last week and successfully completing my Hardcore run, I was reminded what I like so much about the game: it’s simple, addictive and continually satisfying. A vocal minority will probably never tire of slamming it, but Diablo III deserves to go down as one of the better games of recent years. 

I Like To Hit Things With A Stick 

On the surface, Diablo III isn’t particularly complex. You pick one of five character classes and beat the crap out of a zillion demons en route to a showdown with the Lord of Terror. Your choice of class is a matter of taste: do you want to whack things (Barbarian), punch and kick them in the face (Monk), shoot them with arrows (Demon Hunter), or blast them with magic (Wizard)? I’ve dabbled with all five classes, but by far I’ve spent the majority of my time with the Barbarian (I’m just a simple caveman, sue me) and that’s been more than enjoyable enough for me.

I was surprised at how Diablo III‘s story grew on me. I tend to ignore the unbearably hokey lore in most fantasy games, but D3 does a decent job of connecting the dots as you progress. You start the game investigating a “fallen star” that’s crashed into a nearby cathedral and unleashed all manner of demons, but as the true nature of things are revealed, your job becomes clear. The game is split across four acts, each with its own themes and color schemes, and the various locales and palettes keep the constant demoncide from getting monotonous. (It’s also worth mentioning that many of the cinematics you unlock, especially later in the game, are nothing short of spectacular.)

Maybe the most interesting thing about Diablo III is how the game never really “ends.” Dungeons and enemies are randomly generated, giving the game a hefty amount of replay value. Normal is practically a training mode that ensures you’ll see the entire game at least once; after you finish Act IV, the credits roll and you’re bounced back to the start at the next difficulty setting, and for a lot of people, this is where the true Diablo III experience begins.

At the Nightmare and Hell settings, Diablo III becomes a different game for two key reasons. First, enemies don’t simply have more health and do more damage; they combine multiple abilities, which means you actually have to start paying attention to tactics. You also continue to get new abilities all the way to the level cap of 60, so if you complete Normal around 30, there’s still plenty of stuff to unlock. You could argue that yes, you’re basically replaying the same content, but once you finish Normal, Diablo III becomes less of a casual-friendly cakewalk and more of a game.

For the ultimate challenge, Diablo III supports a Hardcore mode, where death is permanent and your character is retired forever. At this setting, even Normal becomes a tense affair when elites show up, and you can’t help but get nervous before every boss fight. As mentioned above, I just completed Hardcore Normal with a level 33 Barbarian (she’s 37 now), which by far feels like my biggest achievement in the game. Do I have the guts to face the Skeleton King on Nightmare and risk losing that character forever? It’s a fascinating question I haven’t answered yet.

The Online Conundrum

Naturally, Diablo III supports online multiplayer, integrated with Blizzard’s Battle.net service and friends list. Up to four players can steamroll demons together, jumping in and out of their friends’ games at any time, with the difficulty scaling to match the number of players. It’s awesome fun, and if nothing else, it provides a nice change of pace after you’ve beaten the game on multiple difficulty levels.

Diablo III also has a fascinating feature in its Auction House, where you can sell loot to other players or buy gear that other people have listed. If you choose to take advantage of the AH, it can make the game a ton easier: once you’re in your 20s and 30s, enemies tend to drop gear way below your level, so the AH offers an easy way to get far superior gear, at prices so low at times that it almost feels like cheating. (In addition to buying gear with in-game gold, there’s a separate AH that uses real-world money, but doesn’t appear to be used by many players.)

To facilitate these features, Diablo III has one controversial requirement: mandatory online connectivity. Even if you just want to play solo, you still need to be online and logged into Battle.net at all times. The week the game was released, the servers melted down for several days, prompting a a massive outcry from people who felt this was a lousy way for Blizzard to prevent piracy and cheating. Personally, I wouldn’t mind having an offline mode for when I’m traveling with my laptop, and there are still times the game has issues connecting, so the complaint isn’t without some merit.

But what upset me far more was the hypocrisy of the complainers, failing to acknowledge that they’re as much to blame as anyone. If you pre-order months in advance or purchase a game on launch day without looking at a single review, how are you anything other than a sucker begging to be ripped off? Millions of copies of Diablo III were sold within weeks of release, sending one message loud and clear: “do whatever you want, here’s our money.” If you don’t like what a company is doing, try voting with your wallet; otherwise, all you’re doing is empowering these companies to do whatever they want, and if you’re going to be a lemming about it, I don’t want to hear you whine afterwards.

The Final Word 

In fifteen years of reviewing, I’ve come to understand one important thing about great games: they’re fun even at their most simplistic. Good first-person shooters are satisfying even when it’s just you and one enemy in an empty room. Angry Birds became a phenomenon because it was as much a cool physics toy as a game. And Diablo III succeeds largely because the simple act of beating the crap out of demons never gets old. Everything after that is just gravy.

And that’s really Blizzard’s schtick. They don’t reinvent the wheel; they take simple gameplay, polish it like crazy, and use it as a foundation to build massive, awesome games. Yeah, I’d like a fifth act and an offline mode, but that doesn’t make Diablo III any less of a blast.  Sluggo’s Score: A-